Pulses of sunshine present promise in controlling seizures

In what may in the future turn into a brand new remedy for epilepsy, researchers at UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley have used pulses of sunshine to stop seizure-like exercise in neurons.

The researchers used mind tissue that had been faraway from epilepsy sufferers as a part of their remedy.

Ultimately, they hope the approach will exchange surgical procedure to take away the mind tissue the place seizures originate, offering a much less invasive choice for sufferers whose signs can’t be managed with treatment. 

The group used a technique often called optogenetics, which employs a innocent virus to ship light-sensitive genes from microorganisms to a selected set of neurons within the mind that may be switched on and off with pulses of sunshine.

It’s the first demonstration that optogenetics can be utilized to manage seizure exercise in residing human mind tissue, and it opens the door to new therapies for different neurological ailments and situations. 

«This represents a large step towards a strong new means of treating epilepsy and certain different situations,» mentioned Tomasz Nowakowski, PhD, an assistant professor of neurological surgical procedure and a co-senior creator of the research, which seems Nov. 15 in Nature Neuroscience.

Subduing epilepsy’s spikes 

To maintain the tissue alive lengthy sufficient to finish the research, which took a number of weeks, the researchers created an surroundings that mimics situations contained in the cranium.

John Andrews, MD, a resident in neurosurgery, positioned the tissue on a nutrient medium that resembles the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the mind.

David Schaffer, PhD, a biomolecular engineer at UC Berkeley discovered one of the best virus to ship the genes, so they might work within the particular neurons the group was concentrating on.

Andrews then positioned the tissue on a mattress of electrodes sufficiently small to detect {the electrical} discharges of neurons speaking with one another.

When the mind is performing usually, neurons ship indicators at completely different occasions and frequencies in a predictable, low-level chatter. However throughout a seizure, the chatter synchronizes into loud bursts {of electrical} exercise that overwhelm the mind’s informal dialog.

The group hoped to make use of the sunshine pulses to stop the bursts by switching off neurons that contained light-sensitive proteins.

Distant-control experimentation 

First, the group wanted to discover a approach to run their experiments with out disturbing the tissue. The tiny electrodes had been solely 17 microns aside – lower than half the width of a human hair – and the smallest motion of the mind slices may skew their outcomes.

Mircea Teodorescu, PhD, an affiliate professor {of electrical} and laptop engineering at UCSC and co-senior creator of the research, designed a remote-control system to document the neurons’ electrical exercise and ship gentle pulses to the tissue.

Teodorescu’s lab wrote software program that enabled the scientists to manage the equipment, so the group may direct experiments from Santa Cruz on the tissue in Nowakowski’s San Francisco lab.

That means, nobody wanted to be within the room the place the tissue was being stored. 

This was a really distinctive collaboration to resolve an extremely advanced analysis drawback. The truth that we really achieved this feat reveals how a lot farther we are able to attain once we carry the strengths of our establishments collectively.» 

Mircea Teodorescu, PhD, affiliate professor {of electrical} and laptop engineering at UCSC 

New perception into seizures 

Optogenetics allows researchers to zoom in on discrete units of neurons.

The group may see which kinds of neurons and what number of of them had been wanted to begin a seizure. They usually decided the bottom depth of sunshine wanted to alter {the electrical} exercise of the neurons in reside mind slices.

The researchers may additionally see how interactions between neurons inhibited a seizure. 

Edward Chang, MD, the chair of Neurological Surgical procedure at UCSF, mentioned these insights may revolutionize look after folks with epilepsy.

«I imagine that sooner or later, we can’t have to try this if we use this sort of method,» Chang mentioned who together with Nowakowski is a member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

«We’ll be capable to give folks far more delicate, efficient management over their seizures whereas saving them from such an invasive surgical procedure.»